the window on the northern side looked out onto a block of purple buildings

Inspired by the poetry of young Hungarian poets, especially Mónika Ferencz, I produced a work that consists of series of short films.

The feeling of nostalgia has historically been used to describe an intense longing for home, but over time it has acquired a more positive connotation and today it refers to a feeling of sentimental desire for the past. Through this work, I want to explore the concept of home, a roof over the head, home as a privilege and a place of refuge, both physical and psychological, and as something undefined – a space/feeling that can be rebuilt and adapted. Five short films show screen recordings of Google Street View showing five buildings I’ve lived in in Zagreb as a student. With static and long, slow sequences, I “scan” the buildings, its surroundings, streets and entrance doors. Google street view serves as an impersonal, objective perspective juxtaposed with an intimate, private relationship to the places.

Narration follows three different sources (Monika Ferencz’s “Cement factory, autumn”, Khalil Gibran’s “The Prophet” and my own descriptions of the rooms I lived in) to question the meaning and essentiality of home as well as the longing for it
from three different positions/perspectives.